The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked all the 32 witnesses who had turned hostile during the Jessica Lall trial to file a reply.
NEW DELHI: Initiating action against all the 32 witnesses who had turned hostile during the eight year long Jessica Lall trial, the Delhi High Court on Thursday asked them to file a reply within two weeks explaining why action should not be taken against them for retracting from their earlier statements.
Among the 32 witnesses who were asked to file a reply was model-turned-actor Shayan Munshi and businessman Andaleeb Sehgal, who is also allegedly involved in the oil-for-food scam.
The court had issued an order against all the 32 witnesses, but only 29 appeared for the hearing, as three of them died during the trial proceedings. Munshi, accompanied by his wife Peeya Rai Chaudhary, said after the hearing: “I am not guilty of any misdoing and the court has only asked me to file a reply.” He added, “We are speaking to our lawyer and a reply would be file soon.” Munshi was oneo f the key eyewitnesses, who had seen Manu Sharma murder Lall on April 30, 1999. The other two are Shiv Dass Yadav, an electrician at Tamarind Court and Jagannath Jha.
Soon after Manu escaped from Tamrind Court, where Lall was the bartender for the evening, Munshi had filed an FIR with the local police and identified Manu Sharma as the culprit. There were only 26 witnesses present in the court when the proceedings started in the morning, and the remaining three showed up later.
The court also directed the state counsel to provide them, within two days, the copies of the statement of the witnesses recorded by the police and the testimony of the Investigating Officers. Meanwhile, terming the action of the court as “brilliant”, the victim’s sister Sabrina said, “It is an important step. These people should be made accountable for retracting from their statements,” she added.
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